Delay
by EpicnessAndThenSome
Summary: Grant and Skye get stuck in the airport on Christmas Eve and have to find a way to pass the time! SkyeWard Christmas AU One-Shot.


**AN: Merry Christmas everyone! This fic goes out to Tumblr user willyoukeepmypromise, who is my SkyeWard Secret Santa Giftee! Enjoy!**

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><p>"Attention passengers of flight 8235 bound for Cleveland, Ohio, we regret to inform you that due to inclement weather at the arrival airport, your flight has been postponed. We are currently anticipating a delay of approximately eighteen hours, and staff will be coming around the terminal with further details. Once again, we apologize for this inconvenience, and we wish you all a Happy Holidays."<p>

"Nooooo, nononononono_NO_! This can't be happening! It's Christmas Eve for Christ's sake!" Grant looked up as he heard a girl his own age groaning next to him, just two seats over. She had brown hair and was wearing what was possibly the most ridiculous Christmas sweater he had ever seen, although on her it seemed to work. Sighing, the girl pulled out her phone and dialed. "Mom? Hey! So it looks like I'm not going to be making it for Christmas dinner… Yeah, my flight got delayed for the better half of a day… I don't know yet… well they just announced it, they're going to be coming with more details soon, but all I know right now is that I'm not going to be there… I know! I know, but like there's nothing I can do. Like, I'm actually going to cry… No, no, don't worry; you guys shouldn't miss out just because I have to. Just go ahead with everything, and save me a plate for when I eventually make it, okay? And say hi to everyone for me… Yeah, I love you too… Okay… Merry Christmas to you too. Love you… Okay, bye." The girl hung up the phone and put it back in her pocket, and then put her head in her hands.

Her shoulders started to shake, and Grant began to panic… Desperately, he pulled a plastic container out of his backpack, popped the lid off, and held it over to her. "Christmas cookie?" he offered tentatively.

The girl's shoulders hitched twice more before she looked up at him and managed a small smile as she reached out and carefully selected a gingerbread man from the assortment of treats in the container. "Thank you" she said just before nibbling on one of the gingerbread man's legs. "Mmmm, that's good! Did you make them?"

"No, my roommate did. I can cook well enough, but I can't bake for my life. Oh, uh, my name's Grant, by the way…"

"Skye" she grinned.

A representative from the airline came over to them just then and explained that all of the hotels in the area were completely booked up, but that there would be blankets and pillows available in one area of the terminal which would be designated as a quiet "sleeping area". She also gave each of them a little booklet of vouchers for food from the terminal restaurants and a gift card for the gift shops before once again telling them how sorry they were about the delay and finally moving on to the next group.

"So, Skye, it looks like we have about three quarters of a day to do whatever we like… where shall we begin?"

Skye looked around pensively for a moment before her gaze settled on the three workers who were each bringing a large cart filled with pillows and/or blankets into the quiet zone. She turned back to Grant with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"If we're going to be here for 18 hours, we need a good place to hang out. So, how do you feel about a blanket fort?"

"I've never made one before, but I'm down to learn…"

"You've never made a blanket fort before? Okay, that settles it then." Skye glanced around the room once more as she looked for ideal blanket fort real estate. "How about you bring our bags over to that corner there while I go get the equipment?"

"You got it!"

When Skye got to the quiet area she found the carts to be filled with a variety of sheets, blankets, and pillows. The airport had clearly collected the blankets from the plane supplies and the spare linens from the airport hotel. She quickly grabbed 2 sheets, 5 thicker blankets, and two pillows from the supply and then carried her precariously tippy stack of bedding back to the corner where Grant was waiting.

"Okay, I'll get started here; you go see if you can kidnap a couple of chairs from the cafeteria."

"What?"

"Chairs. We need them. The cafeteria has them. Gogogo."

Grant laughed, but went off to find some chairs anyways. He managed to grab two of them from the caf and carried them back to where Skye was waiting. People looked at him strangely as he walked past carrying them, but he didn't care. If Skye asked for it, he would carry things a lot stranger than just chairs. When he got back she was busy doing something to the wall, but her body shielded her work from his view.

"Got them," Grant said, causing Skye to turn around and her work was revealed. She had taped a couple of bulldog clips to the walls with large Xs of masking tape, for some reason which he couldn't figure out.

"Perfect! Pass me that sheet?"

Eyebrows furled in confusion, he passed it over, and the point of her work was made clear as she attached the sheet to the clips. Next she rearranged the chairs and set them several feet away from the wall, facing toward it, and then took the other end of the sheet and clipped it to the chair back. The other sheet was draped carefully over the first for better coverage, which resulted in the sheets touching the ground on both non-wall sides. Skye immediately dropped down onto all fours and lifted a corner of the sheet and crawled under it.

"Could you hand in the blankets and pillows?" she called out, and he happily complied, passing them under the sheet door without seeing inside. A few moments later her head popped out of the fort and she grinned. "All set. Come on in!" Feeling foolish, Grant self-consciously sank down to his knees, and then crawled into the fort after her.

Skye had taken the thicker blankets and made a sort of nest out of them on the floor. The pillows were thrown in there too, and it looked like it would be super easy to burrow under the covers very comfortably. Their bags were tucked under the chairs so that they could get at them without having them in the way, and Skye's laptop was sitting on one of the seats.

"I got my laptop out so that we could watch a movie later, if we want. There's an outlet right there," she pointed, "so we don't have to worry about battery. And we have all those food vouchers that they gave us to get snacks!"

Grant was a bit awed by the brilliance of the fort design. This girl had thought of everything. Skye was something special, he thought. He'd never met anyone like her before. She had this… light, that just radiated out of her. He found himself nearly incapable of taking his eyes off of her.

"Do you want to stay here and guard the fort while I go get some stuff?" Skye asked.

"Uh, yeah, sure."

"Perfect. Here, I'll open up the folder so that you can look through and pick a movie while I'm gone."

Grant nodded in response.

"Okay, I'll be back soon. Do you want anything?"

"Um, maybe I'll run out myself and get something when you get back. I don't usually know what I want until I see it."

"Okay, back in a flash!"

When she was gone, Grant scooted over to the laptop and began to scroll through the list of titles in the file. She had a lot of Disney movies, a couple of romance movies, and a couple of comedies, but the majority of the titles were action movies. It only took a minute for Grant to spot one of his favourite movies and settle on that, and then he put one of the pillows against the wall and leaned back and relaxed. He then pulled out his cell phone and sent a quick text to his mother to let her know that he wouldn't be there on time, not that it really mattered, and then put his phone back into his pocket.

When Grant looked up after replacing his phone, he was surprised to see a picture on the screen of the laptop. He had just left it with the movie file open. But a second later the picture faded and was replaced with another one, and then he realized that it was a screensaver slideshow. He smiled at the picture of Skye which was displayed… She was sitting on a dock with a lake in the background, and was petting a golden retriever that sat next to her. The picture then changed to one of her in a house, probably the living room. There was a little boy clinging to her back and she was running around the coffee table with her arms out like an airplane. Both of them wore smiles a mile long. The next picture was of her in the kitchen. She had flour everywhere and a mixing spoon in her hand. She was doubled over laughing at the mess that covered the room; she must have turned on the mixer too fast, Grant thought.

Skye came back into the fort just as Grant was looking at a picture of her dressed up in a Captain America costume and surrounded by friends, also in Avengers costumes, at what was clearly a Halloween party.

"I got chips, gummy bears, toblerone, and candy canes! Did you pick a movie?"

"Yeah, I think so… You okay with Mr & Mrs Smith?"

"Of course!"

"Perfect. Then I will go and grab some more snacks, and I'll be back in a bit."

"I'll be here!"

He crawled out of the fort and made his way over to the little convenience store that was down the hall. He grabbed a pack of skittles, some peanut butter cups, some chocolates, and a bag of pretzels and gave the cashier his voucher, and then crossed the hall and went into the slightly fancier gift shop. He looked around at the shelves for a few minutes, and finally spotted the thing that he hadn't known he'd been looking for. He grinned and grabbed it and paid the cashier there with the gift card he had from the airline. He got her to wrap it up in gift paper too, and then put it inside of a plastic bag. On his way back to the fort he stopped at the Starbucks on the way to grab two peppermint hot chocolates and when he got to the sheet door, he called in to Skye to take them from him and passed them in before following the drinks and joining Skye inside.

"What'd you get?"

"Reeses, skittles, pretzels, and chocolates."

"Mmm, keep talking dirty to me!" she laughed with a wink. "Wanna start the movie now?"

"Wait, I got something for you first" he said as he pulled the wrapped gift from the gift shop out of the bag and set it in her lap. "Merry Christmas" he told her, more or less concealing his blush.

Skye grinned and reached behind her to reveal another little wrapped package which she handed to him. "Same to you!"

"You go first" Grant said. Skye smiled and held the package up to her ear and shook it gently once before tearing the package open with reckless abandon like a four year old. She squealed with delight and immediately put the gingerbread man hat on her head. Although it was a super goofy hat, it looked great on her, especially with her Christmas sweater.

"How do I look?" she asked, striking a faux model pose.

"Very festive" he laughed.

"Good! Okay, your turn!"

Grant looked at the package in his hands and carefully turned it over and peeled pack one corner and then followed the edge of the paper to carefully remove the wrapping. Once the paper was gone, he looked at the mug and started to laugh. It had a picture of a scowling elf on it and it said "Merry Elfin' Christmas". He grabbed his hot chocolate and poured it from the disposable cup into his new mug and took a sip.

"Perfect" he said. "Thank you, Skye."

"You're welcome. I thought it suited the situation."

"That it does" he laughed. "Now should we start the movie?"

"Let's do it!"

Grant held onto Skye's drink for her as she crawled over to the laptop to start the movie, and when she came back she burrowed into the blankets next to him and curled up against his side. As the movie started to play he looked down at her and smiled. Maybe, just maybe, this Christmas wouldn't suck after all.

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><p><strong>AN: Please review, and have a wonderful Christmas (or any other holiday you may celebrate) everyone!<strong>


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